


And the Waterfall Thunders On

by Acxa_Kogane



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Character Death, Crying, Feels, Gen, Good Sibling Cassandra Cain, Hurt, Hurt Jason Todd, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Jason Todd Feels, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Lazarus Pit, Lazarus Pit Headcanons, My poor bby, PTSD but also worse, Protective Cassandra Cain, Resurrected Jason Todd, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24257341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Acxa_Kogane/pseuds/Acxa_Kogane
Summary: She was sitting with her back to the cold, slightly damp stone. Trees surrounded her, the wind blowing through their leaves with a calm noise. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark long ago, and she could see the moon reflected in the shallow stream below her. There was an outcropping of rocks before the steep, dirty banks of the now trickling river.The roots of trees protruded strangely from the ground, clumps of dirt hanging from the sides of the small cliffs. She sat safely on her flat rock, the other rounded, slightly mossy facets of the stone behind her pressing into her back when she'd lean on them.Two sit together in the woods at night. Only one is breathing when the sun rises.
Relationships: Cassandra Cain & Jason Todd
Comments: 16
Kudos: 130





	And the Waterfall Thunders On

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written at 3AM and I love it. It's also chapter 17 of my other fic, May Mayhem, but I felt like it would be buried there, so I've unearthed it to become it's own short one-shot. 
> 
> Asterisks (*) instead of quotations are sign language.

Cass was tired. She took a deep breath of the crisp air. It was peaceful out here. She didn't mind the cold all that much. It was no colder than Gotham, and here things were... quiet.

She was sitting with her back to the cold, slightly damp stone. Trees surrounded her, the wind blowing through their leaves with a calm noise. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark long ago, and she could see the moon reflected in the shallow stream below her. There was an outcropping of rocks before the steep, dirty banks of the now trickling river.

The roots of trees protruded strangely from the ground, clumps of dirt hanging from the sides of the small cliffs. She sat safely on her flat rock, the other rounded, slightly mossy facets of the stone behind her pressing into her back when she'd lean on them.

There was a small waterfall upstream. One could hear the faint noise of tumbling water as a static background to the melodic quiet of the woods.

She would live here if she could. All alone among the trees. Nobody else around. Just her and the waterfall and the woods.

Jason had brought her out here. They'd been working together on a long mission, and were waiting for a few days before continuing on the next step. She'd been too tired to wait to get back to Gotham or another city with a bat safehouse. Jason instead had rented a car from the nearby town, and driven her down winding roads where the gravel crunched and rumbled beneath the tires. Where the stars were so bright she felt she could reach out and touch them.

She loved it.

He owned a small cabin out here. She wondered for a moment why he didn't just live out here all the time. It was so pretty.

A slight shuffle behind her. She looked up and back to see Jason there in a simple black shirt. He gave her a small, but genuine smile, asking silently if he could sit with her.

She nodded and he slipped down, arranging himself next to her. So much bigger than her, he was almost like the stone behind her and just as strong.

"Hey"

He looked at her in slight surprise, not expecting the verbal communication. "Hey." His voice was deeper, rougher. It reminded her of the woods somehow.

She yawned and stretched a bit. The day had been long and she was out of energy.

"Tired?"

She nodded, "You?"

He shrugged, looking out over the water below them and the trees on the other side of the riverbed. But he didn't answer.

"Not tired?" She inquired.

"Something like that. I'm usually on patrol right now. Guess I'm a little wound up."

She was quiet for a moment, enjoying the calm. "When do you sleep?"

Silence.

Cass blinked over at him. Then she tilted her head in curiosity, "You do sleep." It was a question, but came out as a statement.

He gave her another smile. This one was tighter. Not genuine. "Yeah, obviously."

Something was not right. "But... you do not sleep in the morning. Or the day. Or evening or night." She frowned, suddenly concerned for him. "When..?"

He looked away.

"You do not... need sleep?" She knew he was different. He healed faster. And from things he should not heal from. She had seen him die once, or she thought she did. He had been shot in the heart. He went down and she fought the rest of the battle in fury. She had been sure he was dead, but then he woke up. And a few days later, all that remained of the hole was a scar. Perhaps he did not need to sleep as much as the rest of them.

There was a long pause. Then he swallowed hard and quietly whispered, ".....no."

He was insecure. It upset him. She placed her hand on his knee as comfort. "Not bad. Just different," she nodded. "Do not be ashamed."

"People need sleep to live, Cass," he snapped sharply at her. But he was not mad at her. He was mad at himself. After a moment he added, "Any living being needs to eat, sleep, and breathe." His voice tightened uncomfortably, like he had a knot in his throat. "Simple."

She frowned again, watching the reflection of the moon on the water. "You.. do not?"

His silence would have been answer enough, but the way his breaths shortened confirmed it.

"That is not bad. Can be very cool." She looked up at him, "Helpful. For missions and..." Something was wrong.

He wasn't reacting. Not to her. Not even the smallest bit.

"Jason?"

Nothing. But his breaths had become even shorter and his eyes were not focused. There was a sheen to then that she did not like. The look of someone trapped within their own memories.

She grabbed him and shook him gently. His skin was cold under her fingertips. "Jason. Come back."

She shook him harder, accidentally knocking him against the rock behind them a bit. It seemed to help though, as he gasped shortly and his eyes mostly lost that shine. But the look of someone in great pain was still there.

"Jason, are you okay?"

His eyes slid to meet hers as he choked on air. "'M fine." He coughed again, tears watering in his eyes as he tried to suck in another small breath.

"What is happening?"

He swallowed, and coughed a few more times before taking another bit of air in and looking down at her – bright green eyes clouded with pain. "Like panic attack... can't control it... body... thinks it's dead."

"Will you... be okay?"

He almost choked on the next breath. "Might die... just a few hours..." Then he really did choke, curling up on himself and rasping out, "Air feels like drowning... in acid."

She wasn't tired anymore. She was concerned and scared, kneeling next to him and wanting to help. He was hurting so much. The air was hurting him.

"Can you stop breathing? And be okay?"

He nodded the smallest bit and opened his mouth to talk again. She quickly covered it with her hand.

"No hurting yourself. Sign language only," she told him firmly.

Jason looked at her for a long moment before nodding. She took her hand away. He signed, *I will be okay. Later. Happens sometimes. Body stops. Mind is not dead, just the body.*

She nodded. She understood. And she hated that he had to hurt like this.

He kept signing after a few moments. *Do not worry. If I die. Please.*

She hugged him.

He froze for a second at the sudden contact. She gave him a squeeze. "I am sorry."

There was a moment where he was so sad and hurt and in pain, then he signed, *thank you.*

She smiled up at him. Not wanting to let go to sign back, she kept speaking out loud. "Do you want me to go? Or stay?"

He hesitated a long moment. She could tell he wanted her to stay, he didn't want to be alone as his body failed him again. But he also didn't want her to worry. He didn't want her to be scared for him.

She decided she was staying.

He did not try hard to make her go. So she hugged him and moved so she was tucked up next to him. Where he could feel her close. She wouldn't leave him. Not while he was hurting.

Ten minutes later, she tried not to cry when his heart stopped. It had been slowly fading, getting weaker with every beat. Then it stopped.

She looked up at him. There were tear tracks on his face. They shone slightly in the moonlight. She hugged him tightly and he looked down and smiled a real smile at her. It was broken, it was sad, it was scared, but it was real.

He didn't move much after that. He gave her a couple of squeezes when she looked up to see how he was, like he was reassuring her he was still there a bit.

She just wanted it to be over. He had suffered enough as it was. This was cruel. But he still smiled for her.

An hour later, he gave her one small, feeble squeeze. And the smallest twitch of a smile before his eyelids slid shut.

Her heart broke. He was in so much pain, his own body giving out on him. Dying slowly, again. Who knows how many times this had happened to him before. When he was alone. Abandoned. Curled up on a cold safehouse somewhere, crying silently in pain as he felt his body shut down.

She was crying. She hugged him tight when his hand slipped limply off her leg and his arm was a dead weight on her shoulders. And even when he became as cold as the stones behind her, she refused to let him go.

She refused to believe he could have lied. That he wasn't coming back.

Three hours later, she looked up at his face again. Hoping for the thousandth time that something had changed. But he was still blank, cheeks pale and white from the lack of blood.

His shirt was wet from her tears.

The waterfall tumbled on. The trees still whispered in the wind. The river still ran beneath the rock.

Cass sat there in the silence, clinging to a cold corpse. Hoping desperately, waiting patiently for him to breathe again.

Begging for her baby brother to come back.

**Author's Note:**

> ........
> 
> yes, i know. i left an open ending.
> 
> i am mildly apologetic.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I'm Here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24293044) by [Aiza_60](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aiza_60/pseuds/Aiza_60)




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